Configuring a radio network for selective broadcast
First Claim
1. A method for configuring a group of radio devices in a radio network to selectively respond to a broadcast radio message broadcast by a coordinator device (20), wherein said coordinator device stores a binding table (40) describing identified devices (22, 24) which are logically linked to a further device (10), the method comprising generating a group identifier (SW1) for those identified devices, which according to said binding table are logically linked to a further device, transmitting to each identified device said generated group identifier, and wherein said generated group identifier is stored by each receiving identified device.
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Abstract
A method for configuring and operating a radio system employing the ZigBee radio standard is described. The method advantageously enables a group of radio devices which are logically linked to another radio device to respond with low latency to a message. The method comprises a group identifier being generated and issued to logically linked devices, details of which are provided in a pre-installed binding table. In operation, a radio message from a device which is logically linked to another is received by a device coordinator which then broadcasts (100) the message with the generated group identifier. Only those devices which have previously received a matching group identifier (140) respond (150) to the broadcast message. Since broadcasts are not acknowledged, a rapid system response is achieved. This is important in lighting applications where a user expects instantaneous operation of lamps at the flick of a logically linked radio light switch.
78 Citations
12 Claims
- 1. A method for configuring a group of radio devices in a radio network to selectively respond to a broadcast radio message broadcast by a coordinator device (20), wherein said coordinator device stores a binding table (40) describing identified devices (22, 24) which are logically linked to a further device (10), the method comprising generating a group identifier (SW1) for those identified devices, which according to said binding table are logically linked to a further device, transmitting to each identified device said generated group identifier, and wherein said generated group identifier is stored by each receiving identified device.
- 8. A radio system comprising a plurality of radio devices (10, 20, 30), some of which are coordinator devices (20) which co-ordinate other devices to form piconets (21, 31), and wherein a radio network comprising said piconets is formed and wherein network communication comprising radio messages (50) is arranged according to a predetermined radio standard (22), and wherein at least one coordinating device (20) has means (20b) for storing a binding table (40) describing logical links between devices of the network, means (20c) for generating a group identifier (56) associated with said logical links and means (20d) for, in a configuration step, supplying said group identifier to said linked devices which respectively store (20b) said supplied group identifier.
Specification